As you know, I’m a huge theme park fanatic and cover the Disney theme park beat here on the site. I’m a Disneyland Annual Passholder, and make trips to the park quite frequently. You may have also heard about the new FastPass+ system that Disney has implemented in Florida that allows resort guests to pre-book fast passes during their visit. It sounds like a great idea. Through the reservation system, guests choose the rides and morning, afternoon and evening times for the three attractions they’d like to experience during that day. This can be done many months in advance of a trip. But I have found there are many downsides to this system.

And now Disney is apparently doing a test in Orlando that could dramatically change how you experience their theme parks: Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios will be instituting FastPass-only access to the popular ride Toy Story Mania. What this means is that you can’t even wait hours in line for the ride, even if you wanted to experience the attraction that badly. Already a huge chunk of the Fast Pass slots is being reserved for guests of the resort who book months in advance. So after the morning batch of fast passes are gone, will theme park guests no longer be allowed to ride any of the popular E-ticket attractions?

Two of the most recent Disney movies, Guardians of the Galaxy and Maleficent, were both massive hits. Among the few things those films have in common is they both held 4D previews at Disneyland/California Adventure in Anaheim, CA. This probably didn’t have any direct effect on the success of the films, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Disney just announced they’ll be giving the same 4D sneak-preview treatment for their next film, Big Hero 6. Read more about the Big Hero 6 Disney event below. Read More »

Since the huge success of Disney’s Frozen, one of the constant rumors around the theme park forums is that Disney Imagineering were planning to retheme Epcot’s Maelstrom ride based on the new Disney animated classic. Well confirmation has come, and that is exactly what is happening. After the jump, find out more about the Frozen ride, DisneyWorld’s plan to transform their castle for Elsa, and the history of Epcot and the Maelstrom attraction.

Brad Bird‘s Tomorrowland is ready to come out into the world. Tuesday, Disney revealed that the film would have a presence at New York Comic-Con. Now, we can exclusively reveal the film will also have a presentation at the D23 Destination D event that takes place November 22-23 in Orlando, Florida.

The film’s supervising art director Ramsey Avery will dive into the making of the film, specifically talking about how they reconstructed parts of the 1964 World’s Fair including the “It’s A Small World” ride.

Find out more about the Tomorrowland event and learn how to get tickets below. Read More »

Six Flags has announced two new theme park attractions featuring DC Comic book superheroes: A Batman 4D Roller Coaster in Texas and an interactive dark ride attraction called Justice League: Battle for Metropolis which will open in two Texas and Missouri parks. Find out more information about both new attractions alone with teaser trailers for both rides, after the jump.

When Disney bought Marvel and Lucasfilm, they did it for more than movies. They did it for TV shows. They did it for merchandise and they did it for licensing. Also, they spent those billions to integrate both those properties into their theme parks. That has yet to happen in a major way, but it hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from spinning. The latest possibility says Star Wars won’t take over Disneyland‘s Tomorrowland as originally though. Instead, they might take over Toontown and a large section of the Big Thunder Ranch.

Also, a Marvel themed roller coaster is rumored to be under consideration for Disney’s California Adventure, in a parking lot area, plus Frozen will take over a section of the park this holiday season and The Muppets could get a new movie. Read about all these latest Marvel and Star Wars Disneyland rumors below. Read More »

When Disney opened MGM Studios (now “Disney’s Hollywood Studios”) in Orlando Florida, one of the attractions was The Magic of Disney Animation, a Feature Animation pavilion where park visitors toured four connected experiences which explored the legacy of Disney’s hand-drawn animation. I remember visiting the park shortly after it opened as a kid, and one of the highlights was being able to peer through a window into a room of animators who were hard at work on an animated feature film.

The tour started with a short film entitled “Back to Neverland” which featured Veteran newscaster Walter Cronkite giving comedian/actor Robin Williams a tour through the different stages of hand-drawn animation. The short film was informative, but also very funny, with Williams being turned into an animated character, one of the Lost Boys of Peter Pan. Back to Neverland left the parks in 2004 but /Film reader augustesomers alerted me that the short film is available on YouTube. If you’ve never seen it, its worth a watch.